Can't find a job
I apologize for the several-week hiatus in my posts as well as not having written back to e-mail in the last week and a half or so...I've been kind of morose lately after my tenuous financial situation here took a turn for the worse.
I had applied for a job with a certain translation/interpreting company in Osaka through an introduction from one of Anna's friends about a month and a half ago. At the time, I didn't have working permission so there was nothing I or they could do...in the meantime I applied for various other jobs including one as a fitness instructor at a local gym and another at an English-teaching company popular in Japan called NOVA. Ultimately I was offered a job at NOVA for 28 hours/week, the maximum number of hours I am permitted to work. The pay was not extraordinary but it was pretty good, and I was going to take it. However, I got word from a certain person that the translation company was abuzz with excitement that I would be soon joining them! That was a huge ego boost which I needed very badly at the time, as I had been out of work for several months and was feeling really, really disenfranchised. I fantasized that my potential career in translation/interpreting was about to unfold...and just as I was wondering whether I should go with a sure thing and take the English-teaching job at NOVA, I heard -- again through the same source -- that the translation company (which is quite famous and reputable) just couldn't wait to hire me. Having heard this twice, I foolishly threw all caution into the wind and turned down the NOVA job. I suppose my choice of words gives the rest away...
To sum it up, I got my working permission approved, and the company asked me to take a trial proofreading test (they had wanted me to work first as a proofreader of technical translations and then begin translating later). I did my best, found a number of mistakes in the document they had sent me, and wrote detailed notes on why I made the various changes as well as including stylistic advice for the translators.
Two weeks later I got news that I did not meet the required level as a proofreader, and that they regretfully must inform me that they cannot hire me. The word regretfully sort of pisses me off...of course the letter was in Japanese, but 残念ながら means pretty much the same thing. What do they regret? I'm just one among hundreds who are desperate for a job...they have nothing to regret at all...The official mail was about two lines long and didn't tell me much about what had happened, but I found out later that (1) the reason I couldn't be hired as a translator was not that I was lacking any skill but that I didn't have three years of professional experience under my belt, and (2) a native [English-speaking] manager had been the one to judge that my proofreading skill was insufficient to warrant hiring me. As I have never been a professional proofreader, he may be right, but I think possess a much greater knowledge of grammar and style than the average guy, and what I don't know could be taught to me within a month at most.
The company has the right to hire me or reject me...I don't dispute that part. But I would have prefered not to have my chain jerked around by false information that had me turn down an other-wise steady job. Now I must start this ridiculous job search over from square one.
It's pretty depressing, and although being with Anna is a wonderful thing, part of me is counting down the days until I go back to the US, where I can once again have something resembling a life. I have applied online to about 30 jobs in the last week but have only heard back from two of them, and unfortunately one is too far away and the other is hypothetical work. Tomorrow if I can dredge up the energy I will put on my suit and head to the employment office to see if I can drill holes or tighten screws all day in a factory for about 700 yen/hour (not much).
What made me think I deserved better?
I had applied for a job with a certain translation/interpreting company in Osaka through an introduction from one of Anna's friends about a month and a half ago. At the time, I didn't have working permission so there was nothing I or they could do...in the meantime I applied for various other jobs including one as a fitness instructor at a local gym and another at an English-teaching company popular in Japan called NOVA. Ultimately I was offered a job at NOVA for 28 hours/week, the maximum number of hours I am permitted to work. The pay was not extraordinary but it was pretty good, and I was going to take it. However, I got word from a certain person that the translation company was abuzz with excitement that I would be soon joining them! That was a huge ego boost which I needed very badly at the time, as I had been out of work for several months and was feeling really, really disenfranchised. I fantasized that my potential career in translation/interpreting was about to unfold...and just as I was wondering whether I should go with a sure thing and take the English-teaching job at NOVA, I heard -- again through the same source -- that the translation company (which is quite famous and reputable) just couldn't wait to hire me. Having heard this twice, I foolishly threw all caution into the wind and turned down the NOVA job. I suppose my choice of words gives the rest away...
To sum it up, I got my working permission approved, and the company asked me to take a trial proofreading test (they had wanted me to work first as a proofreader of technical translations and then begin translating later). I did my best, found a number of mistakes in the document they had sent me, and wrote detailed notes on why I made the various changes as well as including stylistic advice for the translators.
Two weeks later I got news that I did not meet the required level as a proofreader, and that they regretfully must inform me that they cannot hire me. The word regretfully sort of pisses me off...of course the letter was in Japanese, but 残念ながら means pretty much the same thing. What do they regret? I'm just one among hundreds who are desperate for a job...they have nothing to regret at all...The official mail was about two lines long and didn't tell me much about what had happened, but I found out later that (1) the reason I couldn't be hired as a translator was not that I was lacking any skill but that I didn't have three years of professional experience under my belt, and (2) a native [English-speaking] manager had been the one to judge that my proofreading skill was insufficient to warrant hiring me. As I have never been a professional proofreader, he may be right, but I think possess a much greater knowledge of grammar and style than the average guy, and what I don't know could be taught to me within a month at most.
The company has the right to hire me or reject me...I don't dispute that part. But I would have prefered not to have my chain jerked around by false information that had me turn down an other-wise steady job. Now I must start this ridiculous job search over from square one.
It's pretty depressing, and although being with Anna is a wonderful thing, part of me is counting down the days until I go back to the US, where I can once again have something resembling a life. I have applied online to about 30 jobs in the last week but have only heard back from two of them, and unfortunately one is too far away and the other is hypothetical work. Tomorrow if I can dredge up the energy I will put on my suit and head to the employment office to see if I can drill holes or tighten screws all day in a factory for about 700 yen/hour (not much).
What made me think I deserved better?
posted by jeremy at 10:24 PM
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